Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to attend the Global Vaccine Summit on Thursday, which will look at progress since 2000, and how countries and frontline health workers are successfully addressing the crisis and maintaining essential vaccination services.
Hosted by the UK, the summit will be an entirely virtual event, given the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, UNB reported.
“The virtual Global Vaccine Summit, hosted by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, shows UK leadership on a key aspect of tackling the pandemic,” British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson said on Wednesday.
Dickson said he was pleased that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would be leading the Bangladesh representation in the Global Vaccine Summit.
“Vaccination is always important to public health everywhere, and Sheikh Hasina has a strong and internationally recognized track record of promoting it in Bangladesh," the British high commissioner said.
"It will play a key role in helping us to move beyond this unprecedented global pandemic,” he added.
The summit is an important milestone, including securing support to immunize 300 million children and save up to eight million lives by 2025, strengthening health systems around the world and helping to tackle Covid-19 in some of the world's poorest countries, Dickson told UNB.
If the summit succeeds, the organizers said they would be able to maintain immunization in developing countries, mitigating the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
They will also be able to sustain health systems so that countries are ready to rapidly introduce Covid-19 vaccines, and by 2025, they will have immunized more than 1.1 billion children, saving 22 million lives, according to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
This will help to stop future waves of infection spreading globally, including coming to the UK.
It will bring together private and public sector global leaders, building long-term sustainability and vaccine supply security to reduce disease inequality and create a safer and more prosperous world.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called on countries to come together in a "truly global effort" to defeat coronavirus.
The UK is already the biggest donor to the global fund to find a vaccine to the novel coronavirus, which is causing Covid-19.
International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan earlier announced a funding pledge equivalent to £330 million a year over the next five years to Gavi.
This will help immunize 75 million children in the world's poorest countries.
The UK has so far provided £744 million of UK aid for the global response to Covid-19.
In September last year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina received the prestigious “Vaccine Hero” award in recognition of Bangladesh's outstanding success in vaccination to immunize children.
The Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisations (Gavi) conferred the award upon the prime minister at a ceremony at the Conference Room 1 of the UN Headquarters.
Receiving the award, Sheikh Hasina dedicated it to the people of Bangladesh.
The success of Bangladesh in vaccination program is now globally acknowledged. The country hopes to reach the target of “vaccines for all” well ahead of 2030.
